Chosen
by Kiara-Zzyopen
Summary: COMPLETE: Ron, tired of being a sidekick, meets Dawn in the Leaky Cauldron and she makes him feel a lot better.


CHOSEN- By Kiara  
  
Ron sighed. He was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, drowning his sorrows as you might say. 'Where were his friends?' You might ask. 'Why is this young man drinking fire whiskey all on his own?' Two excellent questions. His best friend in the whole world was a celebrity. Everyone from his world, the wizarding world, knew his name. He was a junior auror. He saved the world from an evil wizard while he was still a teenager, he had help, a lot of it was from Ron, but people always remember the boy-who-lived, not the best friend of said boy who wont die. Ron's other best friend, Hermione, was a genius- no exaggeration. She was bloody brilliant in Ron's eyes, but she was with Harry on his top-secret mission for the ministry. Last Ron heard they were in Africa; with Hermione's brains and Harry's brawn, they could do pretty much anything. They didn't need him.  
  
'I've saved both of their bloody lives; we were a team. Now they're a team...I'm the indispensable sidekick. Good old Ron, always there when you need him. I should be glad they put up with me while we were at Hogwarts.'  
  
Yes, Ron was drowning in a sea of self-pity; quite righteously you may think, after all, his best friends abandoned him.  
  
"Same again." Ron said to the bartender after shooting back the fiery liquid still in his glass and making a face at the burning taste.  
  
"Are you sure? You've already had a few...Hey, don't I know you?"  
  
"Same again." Ron repeated firmly. In a way what the bartender had said about not recognising him, proved what Ron had been thinking. Without Harry or Hermione around, no one could place his face.  
  
"Archers and Lemonade, please," a light brunette said to the barman. "Hi," she said turning to Ron, "Whoa. Do you feel as bad as you look?" She said with a grin.  
  
"I proberly feel worse." Ron grumbled. The girl laughed. 'She has a nice laugh.' Ron thought. 'It sounds happy.'  
  
"I'm Dawn Summers."  
  
"Ron Weasly. What is that- I've never heard of Arches."  
  
"Archers. It's a muggle drink. It's really good. This ones peach."  
  
"Oh. Alright then." They fell into that awkward silence you get when two people have just met and neither knows what to say.  
  
"So where are you from? I haven't seen you around here before. Are you even from this world? Ron said finally.  
  
The relief in Dawn's face was clear at the silence being broken. "No. I'm not magical, but I know all about 'your world. I have friends who are magical."  
  
"Witches and wizards?"  
  
"Not exactly. One Wicca, several you'd probably describe as 'other'"  
  
There was obvious confusion written on Ron's face. Dawn continued quickly, she wasn't sure how much to tell this virtual stranger.  
  
"I'm from America, obviously. Have you heard of Sunnydale? Well I lived there until a couple of years ago. Now I'm travelling with my sister."  
  
"Sunnydale? I've heard of that name...Wait a sec, you lived on the hellmouth?"  
  
"Yeah. How'd you know about that?"  
  
"I'm a friend of a werewolf, whose friends with another werewolf who used to live there. Claims he helped prevent the end of the world, even says he knew the slayer. Freaking fruitcakes if you ask me."  
  
"This werewolf; his name didn't happen to be Oz, did it? Or Daniel Osmond?"  
  
"Yeah; how'd you know?"  
  
"Knew him a long time ago. He was telling the truth."  
  
"You're kidding? Wow." He took a moment to digest this information. "So do you know the slayer as well?"  
  
"Unfortunately, yes. She's my sister."  
  
"Really? That must be so cool. Oz mentioned you a couple of times...Oh no. You're a bloody hero as well, aren't you?"  
  
"What? No! No, definitely not!"  
  
"You've saved the world, right? That makes you a hero...or heroine in your case I suppose."  
  
"I helped a few times, but only when Buffy didn't know I was doing it, or she had no choice. I've only played a part in 5 apocalypses. The first time I was captured and tortured by my sisters ex and then helped perform a spell to get his soul back. The second one I fought with Buffy's school against the vampires while she faced off against a snake demon. Third time I got kidnapped and nearly caused the end of the world. Forth and Fith I fought earth monsters, uber-vamps and bringers. I hardly did anything else. Staked the odd vampire, killed a few demons... I helped with research a lot. But mostly I just got kidnapped and had to be saved."  
  
"Sound familiar."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I have a tendency to need to be rescued, every year, by my friend."  
  
"That's gotta suck...If it's any consolation, I usually get rescued on a weekly basis...usually on a Tuesday."  
  
Ron laughed. This girl, who was practically a stranger to him, was able to make him feel better when his friends couldn't.  
  
"So," she said, taking a sip of her drink, "how about we make a deal. A story for a story."  
  
"Sound good to me. You go first."  
  
"OK. Umm. The first time I got kidnapped was when I was 9. My mum and me didn't know about Buffy being a slayer and we had just moved to Sunnydale. Anyway this guy knocked on our door so I went to answer it. There was no one there and me, being the naïve little girl that I was, went out into the garden to see if I could see anyone. A vampire captured me and took me to a master vamp. Buffy turned up, kicked their asses and then chose to save me over defeating the master. I found out about her slayerage and was sworn to secrecy. Your turn."  
  
"OK. Harry, Hermione and I were in our 7th year at Hogwarts. There was this prophecy- what?"  
  
"Sorry. Hate prophecies. One told me I was going to create hell on earth once."  
  
"Did you?"  
  
"Yeah, but only until my sister died to save us. Anyway you were saying."  
  
"Yeah, a prophecy that only Harry could kill Voldermort. Wait your sister died?"  
  
"Yeah- but we resurrected her."  
  
"Oh OK then...right, we went to this final battle. All the aurors were fighting the death eaters and the three of us continued on to Voldermort. We fought kind of, but it was mainly Harry and Voldermort, with Hermione blocking any curses that got too close to anyone. A couple of the death eaters got through the ranks of aurors and attacked us. Harry was still in his duel, so Hermione and I dealt with them. We were doing OK, until I managed to get hit by a curse. Then Hermione dove in front of me to protect me from a Cruico- really intense pain spell." Ron explained seeing Dawn's confused expression. "See knocked them both unconscious while I just lay there. Meanwhile Harry and Voldermort had really been going at it- hurling hexes and unforgivables at each other. Voldermort grabbed me to use as a shield, he escaped, but Harry went after him and eventually killed him. He would've killed him sooner if it wasn't for me, and there would be a family of muggles still alive if I hadn't let myself be captured."  
  
"Let yourself be captured? Doesn't sound that way. Things like that happen in a battle."  
  
"It's still my fault. Hermione nearly died and that family..."  
  
"It's not your fault. When my sister died, it was because of me. People died because she died, and she died to save me. I know it feels like it's your fault, but it's not. Nearly every thing in this world is predetermined by the Powers That Be and they have their reasons for doing what they did. You may not know the reasons for several hundred more years, but they'll be a reason."  
  
"How do you do that?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Make me feel better, even though you don't know me. You're the first one who's been able to get me to see that."  
  
"It's a gift." Dawn said with a false air of modesty. Both the young adults started laughing, breaking the seriousness of the situation.  
  
For the next couple of hours Ron and Dawn exchanged stories of their past. Ron telling Dawn about the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid's pets etc and Dawn telling Ron about her disastrous first kiss, Sweet the singing demon, and several other accounts of her being kidnapped.  
  
"So why are you here on your own?" Ron asked  
  
"Well Willows meeting with a group that helps her fight an addiction that she has, Buffy's meeting up with an old friend of ours, and Xander's on a date...I'm surprised he hasn't called and needed to be resued by now. How about you, why are you on your own?"  
  
"Harry and Hermione are on a big top secret mission."  
  
"How come you're not with them?"  
  
"They don't need me."  
  
"I sense a pity party."  
  
"Well don't I have the right? I mean, they DON'T need me. I'm just the tag- a-long sidekick. You have no idea what that's like."  
  
"Hey, preaching to the choir, mate. OK, so we're not the hero's at the end of the day. But do you think that they could get by without you? How about in that dungeon, when you were trying to get the professor's stone."  
  
"Philosopher's Stone."  
  
"Yeah, that. They couldn't cross that chess set. Besides you have it much harder than them."  
  
"No way, they have that-"  
  
"I've been on the sidelines since I was 9, that's 10 years. I've watched my friends get more and more powerful. And me? I do the research if Willow and Giles are too busy to do it magically. They'll never know how tough it is, Ron, to be the one who isn't chosen, to live so close to the spotlight, and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anyone realises because no- body's watching me. So I know that I'm not special, and neither are you."  
  
"What?" That wasn't what Ron expected.  
  
"We're extraordinary- it's harder to be us, and not have the powers."  
  
"Extraordinary, huh?"  
  
"You got it. -Hey do you want to go somewhere? Get a midnight snack?"  
  
"Sure, that sounds good. Know anywhere? Diagon Alley will be closed by now."  
  
"Fancy coming to my world?"  
  
"That sounds...great."  
  
"Come on then." Dawn giggled. "What are you waiting for?" 


End file.
